Institute of International Finance

The Institute of International Finance, Inc. (IIF) is a global association or trade group of financial institutions. It was created by 38 banks of leading industrialized countries in 1983 in response to the international debt crisis of the early 1980s.[1] See the arguments in support of this in.[2] The IIF serves its membership in three ways:

Providing analysis and research to its members on emerging markets and other issues in global finance.

Developing and advancing views and proposals that influence the public debate on policies, including those of multilateral agencies, and on themes of common interest to participants in global financial markets.

Coordinating a network for members to exchange views and offer opportunities for dialogue among policy-makers, regulators, and private sector financial institutions.

Approximately half of the Institute's members are European-based, while representation from leading financial institutions in emerging market countries is increasing steadily. By 2010, the Institute's members included over 450 of the world's leading banks and finance houses, headquartered in more than 70 countries.[6]

In 2011 the IIF was the main negotiating partner of the EU government, acting on behalf of the private creditors of Greece, on its debt restructuring. In the second bailout plan in July, some academics raised issues about its communication about "haircuts" on Greece's debt (estimates biased upward), and, more generally, the IIF's undue influence in favor of banks, at the expense of Greece's future.[8][9][10]Felix Salmon said in January 2012 that "the real negotiations are the ones which are certainly going on behind the scenes, between the troika (the EU, the ECB, and the IMF) and the Greeks" (as opposed to between the troika and the IIF), because, ultimately, it is in Greece's power to default, and may do so in March when €14.4 billion are due for reimbursement.[11][12]

^UNESCAP (27 April 2000). "Economic and financial monitoring and surveillance: Institute of International Finance". Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific, 2000 (Report). Archived from the original on 3 August 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2013. This section in UNESCAP's annual report reviewed the IIF along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and credit rating agencies in terms of financial monitoring and surveillance.

^William R. White (16–17 March 1998). Promoting international financial stability: the role of the BIS(PDF). Conference on Coping with Financial Crises in Developing and Transition Countries: Regulatory and Supervisory Challenges in a New Era of Global Finance. Forum on Debt and Development. Amsterdam: Nederlandsche Bank. By March 1998 a new paradigm had emerged in terms of regulation and policy-making in a new era of global finance with increasingly "sophisticated and rapidly changing markets." At a conference on debt and development White argued that "policy makers and regulators" would have to "rely increasingly on market-led processes to provide the discipline required to lead to prudent and stabilizing behaviour."

^Felix Salmon (January 2012). "Greece's game plan". blogs.reuters.com. The real negotiations are the ones which are certainly going on behind the scenes, between the troika (the EU, the ECB, and the IMF) and the Greeks.

^Felix Salmon (January 2012). "Greece's endgame looms". blogs.reuters.com. The big deadline in Greece is March 20—that’s when the country has a €14.4 billion bond maturing that it cannot afford to repay. So Greece and its creditors are playing chicken with each other right now.